Motor vehicle congestion upon roadways has become a growing concern for community planners and governmental transportation agencies. Roadway congestion leads to higher accident rates, increased pollutant emissions, and reduced human productivity as a result of extended driving times. Roadway congestion is most pronounced at typical commuting times, such as in the mornings and evenings.
Various solutions have been proposed to reduce roadway congestion. For example, governmental agencies have proposed “staggered” work hours for employees so as to spread out commuting traffic over a longer period of time. Roadway capacity is continually being increased, though at a slower rate than the increase in motor vehicle traffic over time. Mass transit solutions are also being explored, though current capacity and participation are insufficient to unilaterally mitigate motor vehicle congestion problems.
For urban area motor vehicle congestion, an additional helpful solution may be an increased participation in non-motor vehicle commuting. Increased participation in this mode of transportation would obviously mitigate problems associated with motor vehicle congestion. Urban areas have recently dedicated portions of current roadways, and have constructed new pathways for non-motor vehicle transportation in an effort to simultaneously encourage non-motor vehicle transportation, and to discourage motor vehicle transportation. Businesses have also increased the presence of parking areas and locking structures for non-motor vehicles, such as bicycles, to facilitate their use.
Recently, the U.S. federal government has enacted a law providing monetary incentive for commuting by bicycle. The Bicycle Commuter Act was signed into law on Oct. 3, 2008. This legislation allows employers to give employees who commute by bike a monthly tax-free stipend of up to $20.00. Employers may therefore begin to reimburse employees tax-free for bicycle commuting. There may also be health insurance reimbursement opportunities as well for participants in the program.
Businesses and organizations may have other programs to encourage non-motor vehicle commuting. However, verification of compliance with non-motor vehicle commuter incentive programs has traditionally been a challenge, particularly for larger organizations. Consequently, the proliferation of bicycle commuting incentive programs has been subdued.
In view of the above, there is a need to provide a system and method for tracking participation in non-motor vehicle commuting incentive programs. In particular, a need exists for an automated system and method for efficiently tracking non-motor vehicle commuting patterns, as well as an efficient mechanism for determining participant compliance with program award thresholds.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a system and method for tracking non-motorized vehicle commuting activity in an automated and efficient manner.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a simple and unobtrusive apparatus for facilitating the tracking of non-motorized vehicle commuting activity.